


Aphrodite

by theragingstorm



Category: Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: Allegory, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-09
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-11 09:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3321848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingstorm/pseuds/theragingstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It was something that had happened to goddesses in the past, especially the most powerful ones. It was a tired story, that many wished would stop repeating. But it never stopped hurting."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aphrodite

It was something that had happened to goddesses in the past, especially the most powerful ones. It was a tired story, that many wished would stop repeating. But it never stopped hurting.

This is that story:

They thought they knew her.

They thought they could define her as something they understood.

Instead of trying to just accept that she could _not_ be defined, they tried to slap common labels on her.

Easy.

Slut.

Whore.

Man-eater.

Nymphomaniac.

Many more besides; and not just labels. They told cruel, untrue stories or made crude jokes about her. They used _her,_ a _goddess,_ as a source of cheap entertainment.

In different days, she might've shouted with rage and turned them into a goose, or blasted them with one of the other gods' reserve plague arrows or something. She might've cursed them to fall in love with the Minotaur, or to be attacked by a pack of wolves. Her fury was something of legend then.

But she grew tired of trying to punish the gossipers. Anger did not stop the mortals from slandering her name. If anything, it made it worse.

Her friends tried to reassure her, in their own ways.

"You still have your loyal worshippers," said her oldest friend, Athena, she of the brightly colored and wild curls.

"Just ignore them. They'll get bored eventually; you know mortals have ridiculously short attention spans," said Persephone, with her slim figure and long blond hair.

"You're a good person no matter what anyone says," said Apollo, with his many tattoos and honey-sweet voice.

"Perhaps you should give the mortals another chance," said Ariadne, her youthful face and dark eyes shining with hope.

"Oh, I wouldn't concern your pretty self with worry. I'm sure someone _does_ care about you. Maybe," smirked jealous Hera, her peacock-bright outfits doing nothing to outshine her inner hatred for the younger goddess.

Despite her friends' words, it didn't help that among her former allies on Olympus, Hera was only one of many. They listened to their worshippers' and followers' hateful words about one of their own, and they found it _funny._ A _sport._

"Imagine," the Olympians would snicker to each other, "a goddess, one-upped by mortals! She must not be a very good goddess, if she lets them get away with it. Besides, it's not even a lie. Didn't you hear who she screwed _this_ time?"

It was sickening to hear. Eventually, she finally got sick of it and went to go complain to Zeus about the malicious gossip to see if he could do anything to stop it.

"Well," he grumbled into his beard, "you do see, dear--"

"Don't call me 'dear.'"

"You see dear, I can only punish the Olympians for slandering each other if what they speak is untrue."

"So you think I'm a slut? Is that it then?"

"No no!" he said hurriedly. "But you _have_ had many lovers, and you _are_ known for your temper."

"I haven't smote anyone in years! And you're one to talk about lovers!"

"I am the king!" Zeus would bellow.

"So it's different then?"

"Of course it is!"

"Why?" Her anger at his hypocrisy seemed to curdle in her gut.

"It just is! And I have heard from reliable sources as well that you have been saying malicious things about other Olympians, so you have no right to be angry."

" _What?_ " She might've been struck between the eyes. "Who told you that?"

"None of your business. So stay in your own lane and keep your mouth shut. Don't bother me with your foolishness ever again."

"Hera told you, didn't she?" The words flowed from her mouth like a flood. "To keep you informed, so you would stay with her and not go screwing helpless girls? At least my lovers all said _yes._ "

"Out, you stupid woman!" he bellowed, throwing lightning bolts at her heels as she made her escape.

She fumed for a long time after her audience with the so-called king of the gods, brushing even her friends aside to be alone. Her pets, particularly her beloved cats, trailed at her heels, trying to comfort her.

The disenchanted goddess let them follow her to the edge of Olympus, and she sat down, peering over the edge at the towns below. Were mortal lives really so banal that they had to invent cruel stories to entertain themselves?

"Who knows," she murmured, stroking the heads of her cats. "It's been a long while since I lived among mortals. I believed in true love then."

_That must been the truest irony of all,_ she thought. I _of all people am disenchanted about love._

She sat at the edge of Olympus for a long time, listening to the mortals and intending to have a long session of being miserable.

But she heard something as she sat there.

Prayers.

From taking a break from her regular life, she could hear all voices better, not just the cruel ones.

"Beautiful goddess," said a new mother in Athens, "thank you for giving me a husband who treats me well and loves our daughter. I was so terrified that I would get in trouble with my father by making the first move. But instead I am the happiest woman in Hellas."

"Sweet goddess," said a young virgin in Thebes, "I am so in love. It truly is the best feeling in the world, you're right! Thank you for giving me this gift, if only for a while."

"My goddess," said a bride in Sparta, "you have saved my life by allowing me and my untrusting heart to welcome others into it. Now thanks to you, I am surrounded by good friends and my new beloved. I owe you everything."

The voices washed over her like soothing water after a long day in the hot sun. Thousands, maybe millions, of worshippers with more love for her then she could ever imagine.

The goddess got to her feet, feeling better than she had in a long time.

"Come," she said to her pets, "We have a lot to do."

 

\--Fin--


End file.
